The Human Side of Computing

A 250th Anniversary Alumni College

co-sponsored by the School of Engineering and Applied Science
and the Alumni Council

Princeton University

February 20-21, 1997

In the decades since electronic digital computers were invented, these machines have emerged as an imposing force in society, reshaping almost every branch of endeavor, including science, social science, commerce, the arts, and the humanities. The automation of our lives has involved subtle alterations in daily behavior, overt pressure to conform to computational thinking, and the creation of unique opportunities to stretch human knowledge and creativity. In honor of the 250th Anniversary of Princeton University's founding, the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Alumni Council organized an ambitious effort to probe the image and the reality of the Information Age in artistic, historical, pedagogical, psychological, and sociological terms.

Thursday, February 20, 1997

• Opening Remarks
  Robert Stengel *68, Associate Dean and Professor
  School of Engineering and Applied Science

• Treating Computers Like People: It's the Natural Thing to Do
  Clifford Nass '81, *86, Professor of Communications
  Stanford University

• The Origins of the Information Society
  Paul Starr, Professor of Sociology

• In Our Own Image: Creating the Computer, 1945-95
  Michael Mahoney *67, Professor of History

• Cyberspace as Canvas: Visualizing the Atom
  Kenneth Snelson, Artist

• A Jolly Holiday
  Bevin Barberich '97, Student
  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

• Computing in the Entertainment Industry
  Brian Rosen '93, Technical Director
  Pixar Animation

Friday, February 21, 1997

• Wild Web, Natural Net: The Ecology of New Media
  William Howarth, Professor of English

• Accountability in a Computerized Society
  Helen Nissenbaum, Associate Director
  University Center for Human Values

• Computing in Industry and Commerce: What About Productivity, Wages, and Jobs?
  Alan Krueger, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs

• Panel Session: Computing in Education: The Humanities

  Marilyn Lavin, Art Historian
  Kirk Alexander '72, *75, Manager, Multimedia Engineering Computing Atelier
  Karin Trainer, University Librarian, Princeton University Library
  William Childs, Professor of Art and Archaeology
  Jamie Rankin, Senior Lecturer in Germanic Languages and Literature

• Computing in Education: Three Examples in Science
  James Gould, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

• Performance and Composition in Cyberspace: New Realms of Musical Expression
  Perry Cook, Professor of Computer Science

• The Future of Computing
  James Bailey, Author

Further Reading and Examples of On-Line Materials for Education and Research

Kirk Alexander

• The Piero Project
• The Mappamundi Project

James Bailey

• Think You're Smarter Than Your Computer?.

Perry Cook

• Human-Computer Interface Technology
• Simulation of Systems, Real and Imagined
• Introduction to Programming Systems

James Gould

• Gould, J.L., & C.G. Gould. The Animal Mind (New York: W.H. Freeman), 1994.
• Gould, J.L., & C.G. Gould. The Honey Bee, 2nd ed. (New York: W.H. Freeman), 1995.
• Gould, J.L., & W.T. Keeton. Biological Science, 6th Edition (New York: W.W. Norton), 1996.
• Gould, J.L., & G.F. Gould. Chance and Causation (New York: W.W. Norton), in press.

also see course web page:

• The Biology of Organisms

William Howarth

• Benedikt, Michael, Cyberspace: First Steps (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991).
• Bukatman, Scott, Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject In Postmodern Science (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993.
• Campbell, Jeremy, Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language, and Life (New York: Simon & Schuster,1982).
• Czitrom, Daniel J., Media And The American Mind (Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1982).
• Gelernter, David, Mirror Worlds, or, The Day Software Puts The Universe In A Shoebox: How It Will Happen And What It Will Mean (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
• Heim, Michael, The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
• Horowitz, Irving Louis, Communicating Ideas: The Crisis of Publishing in a Post-Industrial Society (New York: Oxford University Press,1986).
• Kelly, Kevin, Out Of Control: The Rise Of NeoBiological Civilization (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1994).
• Landow, George P., Hypertext: The Convergence Of Contemporary Critical Theory And Technology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991).
• Meyrowitz, Joshua, No Sense Of Place: The Impact Of Electronic Media On Social Behavior (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).
• Miall, David S., Humanities and the Computer: New Directions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
• Paulson, William R., The Noise Of Culture: Literary Texts In A World Of Information (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
• Porush, David. The Soft Machine: Cybernetic Fiction (New York: Methuen, 1985 ).
• Roszak, Theodore, The Cult Of Information: A New-Luddite Treatise On High Tech, Artificial Intelligence, And The True Art Of Thinking (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
• Springer, Claudia, Electronic Eros: Bodies And Desire In The Postindustrial Age (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996).
• Turkle, Sherry, Life On The Screen : Identity In The Age Of The Internet (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995).
• Zonn, Leo, Place Images In Media: Portrayal, Experience, And Meaning (Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1990).

• Race and Region
• American Literature before 1825
• American Renaissance
• Literature and Environment

Alan Krueger

• Alan Krueger, "How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure, Evidence From Microdata," Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 1993, pp. 33-60.

Marilyn Lavin

• R. Lightbown, Piero della Francesca (1992), provides color reproductions of all of Piero's work.
• M. Lavin, The Place of Narrative: Mural Decoration in Italian Churches, 431-1600 AD (Chicago, 1990), explains the genesis of the problems we tried to solve.

Michael Mahoney

• Frederick P. Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month (20th Anniversary edition; Addison Wesley)
• Robert Cringeley, Accidental Empires (Harper Business)
• Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray, Computer: A History of the Information Machine (Basic Books)
• Peter H. Salus, A Quarter Century of Unix (Addison-Wesley)
• Clifford Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil (Doubleday)
• Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen (Simon & Schuster)

• "The History of Computing in the History of Technology", Annals of the History of Computing, 10(1988), 113-125.
• "Cybernetics and Information Technology", in R.C. Olby et al. (eds.), Companion to the History of Modern Science (London/New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1989), Chap. 34.
• "The Roots of Software Engineering", CWI Quarterly, 3,4(1990), 325-34
• "Computers and Mathematics: The Search for a Discipline of Computer Science", in J. Echeverria, A. Ibarra and T. Mormann (eds.), The Space of Mathematics (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 1992), 347-61
• "Issues in the History of Computing", in Thomas J. Bergin and Rick G. Gibson (eds.), History of Programming Languages II (NY: ACM Press, 1996), 772-81
• "Computer Science: The Search for a Mathematical Theory", in John Krige and Dominique Pestre (eds.), Science in the 20th Century (London: Harwood Academic Publishers, to appear)
• Reading a Machine

• The World of the Computer
• The Origins of Modern Science, 1500-1700
• Technologies and Their Perspectives
• Engineering Culture: Mechanical Arts, Mathematics, and Mechanical Philosophy

Clifford Nass

• Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass, The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Nass, C., Moon, Y., Morkes, J., Kim, E-Y., & Fogg, B.J. "Computers are social actors: A review of current research," In B. Friedman (Ed.), Moral and ethical issues in human-computer interaction, Stanford, CA: CSLI Press, in press.
• Clifford I. Nass, Matthew Lombard, Lisa Henriksen, and Jonathan S. Steuer, "Anthropocentrism and Computers", Behavior and Information Technology 14(4), 229-238, 1995.
• Clifford I. Nass, Jonathan S. Steuer, Ellen Tauber, and Heidi Reeder, "Anthropomorphism, Agency, & Ethopoeia: Computers as Social Actors", Proceedings of the International CHI Conference, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1993.
• Clifford I. Nass, Youngme Moon, B.J. Fogg, Byron Reeves, and D. Christopher Dryer, "Can Computer Personalities Be Human Personalities?", International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 43, 223-239.
• Clifford I. Nass, BJ Fogg, and Youngme Moon, "Can Computers Be Teammates?", Presented to the International Communication Association, Chicago, IL, 1996.
• Clifford I. Nass, B. J. Fogg, and Youngme Moon, "How Powerful Is Social Identity? Affiliation Effects in Human-Computer Interaction", Proceedings of the Conference on Lifelike Characters, Snowbird, Utah, 1994.

also see the web page for Clifford Nass's research group:

• Social Responses to Communication Technologies

Helen Nissenbaum

• H. Nissenbaum and D.J. Johnson, Computers, Ethics, and Social Values, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1995.

Kenneth Snelson

• Portrait of an Atom

Paul Starr

• Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies of Freedom, Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA, 1983.
• Paul Starr, "Computing Our Way to Educational Reform", The American Prospect, no. 27 (July-August 1996): 50-60.

• The Politics of Numbers (Russell Sage, 1987), edited with William Alonso.
• "Seductions of Sim: Policy as a Simulation Game," The American Prospect, no. 17 (Spring 1994), 19-29.
• "Social Categories and Claims in the Liberal State," Social Research 59 (Summer 1992), 263-95; different version published in Mary Douglas and David Hull, eds., How Classification Works: Nelson Goodman Among the Social Sciences (Edinburgh University Press, 1992), 154-79.
• "The Sociology of Official Statistics," in Alonso and Starr, eds., The Politics of Numbers.
• "Who Will Have the Numbers? The Rise of the Statistical Services Industry and the Politics of Public Data," with Ross Corson, in Alonso and Starr, eds., The Politics of Numbers.
• "The Electronic Reader," Daedalus (Winter 1983).
• "Transforming the Libraries," Change, November 1974.
• "A Nation of Numbers Watchers," Wilson Quarterly, Summer 1985, with William Alonso.
• Review of Patricia Cline Cohen, A Calculating People: The Rise of Numeracy in Early America, in The New Republic, February 13, 1984.
• "The Political Economy of National Statistics," Items, Bulletin of the Social Science Research Council (September 1982), with William Alonso.

also see web pages for Paul Starr's courses:

• American Society and Politics
• Political Sociology of the Advanced Societies

Robert Stengel

• N. Augustine, Augustine's Laws, Viking Press, New York, 1986.
• S. Brand, The Media Lab: Inventing the Future, Viking Press, New York, 1987.
• A. W. Branscomb, "Common Law for the Electronic Frontier," Scientific American, Sept. 1991.
• V. Bush, "As We May Think," The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945.
• L. Constantine, On Peopleware, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1995.
• H. L. and S. E. Dreyfus, Mind over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer, Blackwell, Oxford, 1986.
• S. C. Florman, Blaming Technology, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1981.
• B. R. Gaines, Human-Computer Studies (journal), Academic Press, New York, --.
• B. Gates, The Road Ahead, Viking Press, New York, 1995.
• D. P. Greenberg, "Computers and Architecture," Scientific American, Sept. 1991.
• N. Gross, "Zap! Splat! Smart!" Business Week, Dec. 23, 1996.
• A. Kay, "Computers, Networks and Education," Scientific American, Sept. 1991.
• M. Kinsley, ed., Slate.
• S. Levy, Hackers, Dell, New York, 1985.
• T. W. Malone and J. F. Rockart, "Computers, Networks, and the Corporation," Scientific American, Sept. 1991.
• P. McCordruck, Machines Who Think, W. H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, 1979.
• N. P. Negroponte, "Products and Services for Computer Networks," Scientific American, Sept. 1991.
• N. P. Negroponte, Being Digital, Random House, New York, 1995.
• H. Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1994.
• M. R. Smith and L. Marx, ed., Does Technology Drive History? MIT Press, Cambridge, 1994.
• J. Seabrook, "Why is the Force Still With Us?" The New Yorker, Jan. 6, 1997.
• J. Seabrook, Deeper: My Two-Year Odyssey in Cyberspace, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996.
• C. Stoll, The Cuckoo's Egg, Doubleday, 1989.
• D. G. Stork, HAL's Legacy: 2001's Computer as Dream and Reality
• M. Taube, Computers and Common Sense, Columbia University Press, New York, 1961.
• E. Tenner, Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1996.
• R. D. Tennyson, Computers in Human Behavior (journal), Pergamon/Elsevier Science, New York, --.
• S. Turkle, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1984.
• various, The Big Issue: Where Do We Go from Here? Forbes ASAP, Dec. 2, 1996.
• various, "Beyond Databases and E-Mail," Science, Aug. 13, 1993.
• various, HotWired.
• various, The Media History Project.
• M. M. Waldrop, Complexity, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, New York, 1992.
• M. Weiser, "The Computer for the 21st Century," Scientific American, Sept. 1991.
• J. Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason, W. H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, 1976.
• S. Zuboff, In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, Basic Books, New York, 1988.

also see web pages for Robert Stengel's courses:

• From the Earth to the Moon
• Airplane Dynamics

Organizers of the Alumni College

• Robert Stengel, Associate Dean of Engineering and Applied Science and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, [609] 258-5103.
• Dorothy Bedford, Executive Director of the Steering Committee for the 250th Anniversary, [609] 258-3044.
• Douglas Blair, Associate Director of the Alumni Council, [609] 258-5816.